Medicines play a vital role in patients and healthcare industry. In the traditional system of medication, a physician looks into the symptoms of the illness in a patient and decides the kind, quality and the quantity of the medicine to be delivered to make the patient recuperate from the illness. The decision of the physician is communicated to a pharmacist in writing and the pharmacist holds the responsibility to dispense the right medicine comprising suitable medicinal formulation. The medicinal formulation included in a medicine may be either in the solid form that includes tablets, pills, finely granulated powders, injectable and the like or in the liquid form like syrups, and tonics or in gaseous form like sprays. Sometimes, the formulation may be a gel, paste or cream like ointments.
The delivery of right medicine to a particular illness depends on a plurality of factors. These factors include age, sex, weight, height and severity of illness, in addition to various other physical factors including blood pressure, sugar level in the body and in the blood. Sometimes, a medicine delivered for one kind of illness may be in severe contradiction to another kind of illness in the same patient.
Referring to the prior art, a study by American researchers shows that nearly seventy percent of Americans take prescription drugs and more than half the US people receive at least two prescriptions. Twenty percent of US patients are found to be on five or more prescription medications. Among these prescriptions, antibiotics, antidepressants and painkiller opioids are the most common ones.
Expenditure on prescription drugs in the US accounts for more than for 12% of total personal health care expenditures. Many types of prescription drugs are abused. If a medicine is taken in a way that is different from what a physician has prescribed, then it is considered as prescription drug abuse. The prescription drug abuse may be due to any or all of the following reasons:                taking a medicine that was prescribed for someone else;        taking a larger dose of the prescribed medicine than prescribed dosage;        taking the prescribed medicine in a way different from the way as prescribed by the physician; and        using the prescribed medicine for another purpose.        
Abusing some prescription drugs can lead to addiction including addiction to narcotic painkillers, sedatives, tranquilizers, and stimulants.
In US, it is estimated that nearly three fourth of prescription drug overdoses are caused by prescription painkillers alone. These prescription painkillers are also known as opioid pain relievers. Many people use prescription painkillers non-medically. Death due to the prescription drug overdoses is more than the deaths due to cocaine and heroin combined. Most of these drug overdose deaths are caused due to prescription drugs.
It has been observed that prescription drugs come from hospitals and emergency rooms, clinics, and pharmacies. Instead of meeting with a dealer, drugs could be made readily available by a physician by a simple prescription.
Nowadays, as more and more people are depending on medicines, manual dispensing of medicines has become a cumbersome task for pharmacists. In many cases, there is a risk of giving medicines without proper prescription by a physician. Hence, systems for dispensing medicines have been developed. The medicine dispensing systems available at present are bulky. It makes people unable to carry the dispensing system with them.
Further, in the aforementioned traditional medicine dispensing systems, there is no control over both the usage and misuse of medicines. Also, many of these aforementioned traditional systems are devoid of authorized dispensing of required medicines.
The United States patent application filed by Joseph Moloughney (Pompton Plaines, N.J., US), bearing the application Ser. No. 14/456,172 and publication No. US20160042150, and entitled ‘Intelligent Pill Dispenser With Remote Scheduling and Monitoring’, discloses a medication dispensing system with a remote app or a web page that allows an end user or a remote caregiver to create and change a dose per medication as well as a schedule for each medication dose. Further, the webpage is enabled to provide alerts and notifications, store history of doses delivered and doses removed, and submit automatic refill requests when medication approach refill levels. In addition, the system in the aforementioned United States Patent document includes a medication dispense device having a plurality of medication storage containers, each such container configured to store one medication therein. A dispensing cup and one motor assembly to deliver the medication from the storage container are also provided in the system. Further, one physical control mechanism to warrant the accuracy of the dosage and an user interface to allow the end user to create and change a dose per medication as well as a schedule for each medication dose is provided. Additionally, a circuit board connected to the motor assembly and physical control mechanism is adapted to store software program as a logic of the device to control motors, to accept inputs from the physical control mechanism, from user interface, and inputs from the remote app or web page is provided. However, the drawback of the invention as described in the aforementioned US Patent document is that the device is not tamper-proof and is deprived of the portability and authorization features.
The United States patent issued to Innovation Associates, Inc. (Johnson City, N.Y., US), bearing the application Ser. No. 13/853,230 and U.S. Pat. No. 9,072,652, and entitled Pill Counting and Dispensing Apparatus With Self-Calibrating Dispenser′, discloses a self-contained pill dispenser. The pill dispenser, in accordance with the invention as disclosed in the aforementioned US Patent document comprises a housing enabled to support a hopper for containing a plurality of pills. There is a transport tube receives pills from the hopper. The transport tube has a controllable aperture to facilitate or to inhibit the delivery of the pills to the transport tube. There is a microcontroller functionally coupled with the hopper, the transport tube, and the input aperture. In addition, a feed chute is optionally coupled to the hopper and the transport tube. The system is enabled with a self-calibration of the mechanism for counting and dispensing pills by dynamically adjusting the input aperture based upon the stored information representative of the pulse width signal and the amplitude signal. However, the drawbacks associated with the system disclosed in aforementioned US patent document lies in that the device disclosed therein is not tamper-proof, and is deprived of authorization and portability features. Further, the functioning of the system is complex.
A tamper-proof device for pill dispensing named MedVault pill dispenser created by a group of students from Brigham Young University, is undergoing testing and is patent pending. The device, which is not commercially available in the market yet, enables a user to store the pills and dispense them at a set time. Further, the pharmacist of the user is required to enable the software program of the device, at the time of refilling, in order to determine the kind or type of pills to be dispensed and the time of dispensing. Additionally, a user is required to enter an access code on the top of the device, before a medication is dispensed on time. However, the system disclosed in the aforementioned Medvault pill dispenser developed by Brigham Young University is deprived of tracking mechanism for the proper dosage of medication. Further, the system is unable to dispense a plurality of medicines. Still further, the system is bulky.
The United States patent application filed by Shaahin Cheyene (Venice, Calif., US), bearing the application Ser. No. 13/308,493 and publication No. US20130134180, and entitled ‘Digital Pill Dispenser’, discloses a device for storing and dispensing pills and supplements of various kinds. The dispensed substance includes food, drug, supplements, liquids, powders or pills. The device consists of a rectangular body with rounded edges and display unit, the display unit further adapted to function as an alarm clock. The device may work with blister-packed pills or alternatively use an encapsulated compartment to hold and dispense loose pills. The device has an opening in the front and back so that the pills can be distributed. The device beeps, vibrates and illuminates to remind the user to take their pills or medicine in regular intervals. However, the system as disclosed in the aforementioned US Patent document lacks the technical features of authorization and tracking. Further, there is no mention of overdose prevention feature.
The PCT application filed by Kenneth Stillwell [US], bearing the international application No. PCT/US2000/009328 and the WIPO publication No. WO/2000/063857, and entitled ‘Automatic Pill Dispenser’, discloses a device and a method thereon for dispensing pills or vitamins. The device includes a rotatable chamber within a housing, the rotatable chamber further containing multiple slots for storing the pills or vitamins. The housing has at least one dispensing hole to facilitate the falling of pills from the containment slot, when the slot is aligned with the hole. The chamber may be rotated preferably by motorization. However, the rotation by manual means is also allowed. The motorization contains an electric motor connected to a worm drive that engages gear teeth along the edge of the chamber. However, the drawbacks associated with the system disclosed in aforementioned PCT application lie in that the system disclosed therein is deprived of authorization feature.
The United States patent issued to Nicholas M. Varvarelis (3501 Conshokocken Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa., US) and Joshua Samuelson (126 Crum Creek Dr., Woodlyn, Pa., US) bearing the application Ser. No. 11/225,193 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,359,765, and entitled ‘Electronic Pill Dispenser’, discloses an electronic pill dispenser that includes a container and a cap that detachably attached to the container. Further components of the pill dispenser include a power source, pill dispenser circuitry, a real time clock, a counter, a display, a dispensing mechanism, a sensor, a visual indicator, an audible indicator, an input/output interface, an input output port, and a communication bus electrically interconnecting the components. The electronic pill dispenser may also include a physical indicator, a locking mechanism, a transceiver, an antenna, and a modem. The pill dispenser enhances patient compliance for following through a particular drug regimen by offsetting negative effects of memory loss and other cognitive dysfunctions, attenuation of special senses, poor eyesight, lack of patient education, etc. The pill dispenser is enabled to help the mentally unstable too. The electronic pill dispenser is configured to remind the users and dispense the pills to authorized individuals at appropriate times, and is economical and convenient. However, the drawbacks associated with the system disclosed in aforementioned US patent document are that the device is unable to dispense a plurality of medicines and further the system is bulky.
None of the aforementioned prior art taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the present invention as claimed. Therefore, in order to overcome the drawbacks associated with the prior art, there is strong felt a need for a medicine dispensing system that:                is tamper proof;        is portable;        is compact;        is scaled-down in size        enables dispensing of medicines with a control over the usage and misuse of medicines;        provides for dispensing pre-determined set of medicines at pre-determined time intervals;        prevents the omission of the prescribed medication with respect to people suffering from mental health;        provides for authorized dispensing of medicines.        